Chapter 2: Family

Bridge and Z walked into the Rec-Room to see Sky and Syd giggling on the couch.

"Have you noticed that Sky's a whole lot happier now that Grumm is gone?" Z asked the new Blue Ranger as they made their way to the two seat glass table in the corner. "I mean, like, he's almost normal."

"Believe it or not Z, this is Sky. This is the Sky I knew growing up and this is the Sky that was in line to be the Red Ranger for our first two years of training." Bridge responded.

"What do you mean? Sky hasn't always been a stick-in-the-mud?" Z enquired.

"Nope."

"So what changed?" Z was curious. "Was it Dru going missing?" They started their game of chess.

"Well, kinda." Bridge took a deep breath. "There's a lot more to it than that."

"Care to share, Bridgey?" She prodded.

"Look Z, I'd love to, but it's really not my place."

Sky having heard the entire conversation, yelled out to Bridge from the couch. "It's okay Bridge, you can tell her. She's our team-mate, our friend. Not some random off the street." He winked at them.

"Okay, where do I start?" Bridge turned back to face Z. "As you already know, Sky and I grew up together. What you don't know, on account of the fact that we all thought she was dead, but then she came back and she was evil, but then it turned out she was just brainwashed-"

"Bridge!" Z interrupted him. "Who are you talking about?"

"Oh, sorry. I'm talking about Charlie, Sky's twin sister." Bridge informed her.

"You mean A-Squad Red Ranger Charlie?"

'Yeah, that one." Bridge paused and made his move, taking Z's knight with a bishop. "Well, the five of us; Sky, Charlie, Dru, Myself and Syd were all on B-Squad together, we figured that we'd all move on to become Rangers together. Sky; Red, Dru; Blue, Me; Green, Charlie; Yellow and Syd; Pink. Then about three years into our training, the former A-Squad Red Ranger, Brad Myers, was recruited by Cruger to go and work undercover. We thought Sky would be promoted to A-Squad for sure. But he wasn't. They took Charlie." Z looked at Bridge with shock.

"How did Sky react?"

"He actually encouraged her to go. He said that way they could both honour their dad by being Red; so she took the job."

"That's when he changed?" Z asked.

"No. He was pretty distraught when Dru was announced M.I.A. a few months later, but still, he was our Sky, although he became a bit more serious after that."

"So when did he change into the stick-in-the-mud that I met?" Z laughed.

"Promise you won't be mad?"

'No, never." Z replied, taking his rook with her queen. "Check."

"When you and Jack joined." Bridge looked up at her nervously. 'It wasn't anything personal. It was just that he felt you were replacing Dru and Charlie. Places he'd wrongly assumed would go unfilled. Not to mention, we hadn't heard from Brad in months."

"I never knew Sky was like that. I just thought that he was an angry person by nature." Z said, totally shocked. "And Brad? I'm lost."

"Not your fault, I was the one acting like an ass." Sky said, approaching the table his hand tightly locked with Syd's. "Brad's another one of our 'cousins.' Bridge, Brad, Charlie and I all grew up together. He's a year older than us, born in 2003, managed to fill the last free position in A-Squad before the rest of us arrived." Sky explained.

Before Z could respond, Commander Cruger's voice sounded over the intercom. "B-Squad, report to the Command Centre, on the double!"

XXX

The Rangers arrived at the Command Centre and were shocked by what they saw. Charlie was standing with Commander Cruger dressed in an S.P.D. uniform, only it wasn't red, it was green.

"Sir. What's the issue?" Sky asked seriously, puzzled by Charlie's presence.

"No issue Sky, however, I would like you to meet the new B-Squad Green Ranger."

"Charlie?" Syd asked.

"Yeah." Charlie grinned "After you, Sky and Bridge managed to break the mind control, Cruger offered me the position of Green Ranger."

Syd squealed with joy and ran to hug her best friend, whom she'd barely spent any time with since Charlie had been broken from Grumm's control. "We've missed you so much!" Bridge and Sky walked over and the four embraced, glad to have finally been reunited. Z stood awkwardly in the corner.

Bridge suddenly realised that Z was feeling out of place. "Oh um Z, this is Charlie, Charlie, Z."

"Hi" Z smiled.

"I see you've taken care of my old colour." Charlie joked. "Thanks."

Z was confused. "Huh?" Then she realised what Charlie had meant. "Oh, right. No worries."

The Commander called them to attention. "Rangers. The five of you must now work together. For you to become the team I know you can be. Although Grumm is gone, there will be other threats. The five of you can defeat whatever is put before you. I'm sure of it. Dismissed!"

"Yes Sir!" They echoed, as they saluted their Commander.

XXX

The five Rangers sat around the table eating their dinner in the Rec-Room; Syd and Charlie on one side, Bridge and Z on the other, with Sky at the head, in between Charlie and Bridge.

"And then there was this one time where Sky thought it would be funny to put shaving cream in mom's shampoo!" Charlie laughed. The others cracked up too, whilst Sky turned bright red.

"Hey, hey, hey!" Sky retorted. "Let's not forget the time we were camping and you and Bridge thought it would be a great idea to play hide-and-seek without telling anyone else!"

"To be fair, you didn't find us for 4 hours." Bridge chipped in. Charlie fist-bumped him.

Sky laughed. "That's because we thought you'd run away!"

They continued to tell stories of their childhood to Z (Syd had already heard these stories,) into the early hours of the morning. Sky walked Syd to her room, stopping just outside her door to give her a kiss.

"I love you Syd, more than anything." He told her, his steely gaze looking down on her.

She took his hands in hers, stood on her toes and kissed him on the lips. "I know"
she said, her pearly-white teeth spreading into a wide smile.

Sky grinned as Syd backed into her room, winking at him as it closed. Sky walked back to his room, the goofy smile still etched on his face.

"You guys done it yet?" Bridge questioned upon Sky's entry into their quarters.

"Eww, Bridge!" Charlie was sitting with Bridge on his bed. "I don't want to know about my brother's sex life!"

Sky ignored her. "I'll let you know when you ask Z out." He challenged.

Bridge glared at Sky.

"Wow, Bridgey. I had my suspicions, but I wasn't sure." Charlie teased.

"I'm going to sleep." Bridge replied, taking off his blue S.P.D. shirt to get ready for bed.

Knowing Bridge well enough to know that when he didn't want to talk he wouldn't Charlie, leaned up and gave him a kiss on the cheek, which he reluctantly returned and then she did the same to Sky.

"Night boys, I heard Cruger say something about a 6.00am wake-up." Sky and Bridge groaned. "I'll see you then."

End of Chapter 2. Please Review :)

A/N: I'm not too happy with this chapter, but I haven't updated in ages, so I figured it was better to get a shitty chapter out than none at all.

Also, yes, there will be flashbacks in later chapters which show Sky's transformation, I'm just laying the foundations now.

AND before anyone comments on it; I know this version of Sky is so far from the actual Sky, but to my thinking if Wes and Jen were Sky's parents, he'd have that serious side to him, but he'd be a lot more laid back than he was on the show. It'd have to take a lot of loss (as mentioned in the chapter) to steer him so far away from the personality that his father had, who he wanted to emulate, mind you. In my opinion, it would take someone a lot like his father (like Syd) to bring back that side of him.